The involvement of patients in the decisions about their treatment or care seems an unquestionable advance. There are philosophical and ethical justifications for this. Evidence is also accruing about its benefits—namely, increased satisfaction with care and communication, increased certainty about making the best decision, reduced anxiety levels, and greater adherence to chosen management plan...

Teams make up the building blocks of health care and every team—from the executive to the coal face—is composed of diVerent professionals, ideally possessing a variety of skills necessary to produce safe and eVective care. We are constantly reminded of the value of diversity within teams, but the reality is that working together from a variety of perspectives is sometimes diYcult to achieve. Th...

Teams make up the building blocks of health care and every team—from the executive to the coal face—is composed of diVerent professionals, ideally possessing a variety of skills necessary to produce safe and eVective care. We are constantly reminded of the value of diversity within teams, but the reality is that working together from a variety of perspectives is sometimes diYcult to achieve. Th...

recent disclosures of failures of care in the national health service (nhs) in england have led to debates about compassion deficits disallowing health professionals to provide high quality responsive care. while the link between high quality care and compassion is often taken for granted, it is less obvious how compassion – often originating in the individual’s emotional response – can become ...

Teams make up the building blocks of health care and every team—from the executive to the coal face—is composed of diVerent professionals, ideally possessing a variety of skills necessary to produce safe and eVective care. We are constantly reminded of the value of diversity within teams, but the reality is that working together from a variety of perspectives is sometimes diYcult to achieve. Th...

A growing number of countries worldwide are recognising a common need to build systemic capacity for safeguarding and improving quality of health care. Each country has a unique set of priorities and dynamics driving the speed and the substance of the quality agenda, constrained by the reality of the availability and distribution of resources. While acknowledging the considerable variation in c...

Teams make up the building blocks of health care and every team—from the executive to the coal face—is composed of diVerent professionals, ideally possessing a variety of skills necessary to produce safe and eVective care. We are constantly reminded of the value of diversity within teams, but the reality is that working together from a variety of perspectives is sometimes diYcult to achieve. Th...

Modern approaches to improvement in health care need modern approaches to measurement. Our traditional use of matrices of retrospective data has been described as like “trying to drive a car by looking through the rear view mirror”. Statistical process control tools appear to have much to oVer despite the concerns expressed about using techniques taken from industry. In this issue of Quality in...